Skip to main content
TrustRadius
InsideSales Playbooks

InsideSales Playbooks
Formerly XANT Playbooks

Overview

What is InsideSales Playbooks?

InsideSales Playbooks (formerly XANT Playbooks) aims to help SDRs and AEs quickly build closeable pipeline, by helping salespeople get a hold of more of the right people. InsideSales.com uses their A.I.-platform called Neuralytics to target likely buyers combined with their…

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Playbooks by InsideSales.com is a valuable tool used by various departments and organizations to streamline sales processes, enhance …
Continue reading

Game Changer

10 out of 10
April 12, 2019
Incentivized
Playbooks is being used by the Sales department to keep track of cadence and make it easier to keep track of accounts that come into our …
Continue reading

Playbooks 101

6 out of 10
March 19, 2019
Incentivized
We are using Playbooks as a cadence account management tool. This allows representatives in my position to monitor and manage the accounts …
Continue reading

Playbooks is great!

9 out of 10
March 18, 2019
Playbooks has been implemented across all sales divisions at Groupon. It is addressing the issue of tracking your own cadence and allowing …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is InsideSales Playbooks?

InsideSales Playbooks (formerly XANT Playbooks) aims to help SDRs and AEs quickly build closeable pipeline, by helping salespeople get a hold of more of the right people. InsideSales.com uses their A.I.-platform called Neuralytics to target likely buyers combined with their cadence engine to…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee required
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.insidesales.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

4 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is Paperflite?

Paperflite is a marketing collateral management and sales enablement platform designed for organizing, distributing, and sharing content with customers. Its real-time engagement analytics provide insights into how content is being used, accessed, viewed, and shared by end-users.With Paperflite,…

What is Yesware?

Yesware, from Vendasta since the October 2022 acquisition, is a service for salespeople that helps them close deals faster. An email service tracks email, templates responses and syncs to CRM.

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is InsideSales Playbooks?

InsideSales Playbooks (formerly XANT Playbooks) aims to help SDRs and AEs quickly build closeable pipeline, by helping salespeople get a hold of more of the right people. InsideSales.com uses their A.I.-platform called Neuralytics to target likely buyers combined with their cadence engine to help sales reps consistently engage all of their prospects in a personalized way.

Just like Waze from Google helps drivers get to their destination quickly based on the data from other drivers, Neuralytics uses the collective knowledge of the Insidesales.com user base to help build the sales pipeline quickly. For example, Neuralytics can reveal phone number or email address for a prospect is best, or the best time to call or email, based on the experience of others. Predictive Playbooks uses Neuralytics to gives sales reps an edge over their competition.

The Cadence engine works for small or large teams, global teams, and international calls. The product also conveniently syncs all activity data back to your CRM. Since sales reps only spend 18% of their time in CRM, it also works outside a CRM, wherever salespeople work.


InsideSales is an Aurea company, since the August 2021 acquisition.

InsideSales Playbooks Features

  • Supported: LocalPresence
  • Supported: Email Tracking
  • Supported: Email Templates
  • Supported: Browser Extension
  • Supported: CRM Sync
  • Supported: Rep Dashboard
  • Supported: Reports
  • Supported: VoicemailDrop
  • Supported: Appointment Scheduling

InsideSales Playbooks Screenshots

Screenshot of Playbooks DashboardScreenshot of Editing a RecordScreenshot of Creating an EmailScreenshot of Adding NotesScreenshot of Scheduling a CallScreenshot of Viewing Task List

InsideSales Playbooks Integrations

InsideSales Playbooks Competitors

InsideSales Playbooks Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesGlobal, North America, South America, Europe, Asia
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Outreach and Salesloft are common alternatives for InsideSales Playbooks.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 3.3.

The most common users of InsideSales Playbooks are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(157)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Playbooks by InsideSales.com is a valuable tool used by various departments and organizations to streamline sales processes, enhance productivity, and improve overall performance. Users have found that Playbooks effectively addresses issues of reps not reaching out to accounts for extended periods, providing a game-changing experience. Its powerful features allow users to track cadence, manage accounts in the pipeline, and see exactly which accounts to call or email each day, resulting in improved efficiency and higher conversation rates. With Playbooks, sales reps can focus on prospects and use their time efficiently as it automatically researches who to contact and provides next steps for effective outreach. Additionally, the software integrates seamlessly with CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and other tools such as Salesforce, Gmail, Yesware, making it a comprehensive solution for managing prospecting activities and organizing contact with prospects. By automating tasks and providing clear visibility into activities within Salesforce.com, Playbooks enhances time management, increases dials and sales, and overall improves productivity. Moreover, Playbooks is highly regarded for its ability to simplify outbound prospecting, streamline communication channels like calls, voicemails, emails into a cadence timeline, and provide relevant information about customers. It has been successfully implemented across sales teams in various industries including commercial, public sector, and inbound sales departments at organizations like Groupon and Granicus. Users appreciate that Playbooks eliminates busy work while keeping everyone on track and more organized throughout the sales process. Overall, users highly recommend Playbooks for its ability to increase productivity, manage time efficiently automate tasks effectively provide valuable insights into prospect activities.

In summary:

  • Streamline Sales Processes: Playbooks allows users to track cadence and manage accounts in the pipeline effectively.
  • Improved Efficiency: Users can see exactly which accounts to contact each day for improved productivity.
  • Enhanced Outreach: Playbooks addresses issues of reps not reaching out to accounts for extended periods by creating next steps on when and how to reach out to merchants, resulting in higher conversation rates.
  • Time-Saving Automation: The software automatically researches who to contact, saving time and serving as an efficiency tool.
  • Seamless Integration: Playbooks integrates with CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and tools like Salesforce, Gmail, Yesware to streamline prospecting and improve overall productivity.
  • Simplified Outbound Prospecting: Users find Playbooks helpful in outbound prospecting, validating email addresses, and responding to inbound inquiries. It streamlines communication channels like calls, voicemails, emails into a cadence timeline.
  • Valuable Insights: Playbooks provides valuable information about customers, helping users stay informed and make data-driven decisions.
  • Increased Sales: Users have seen improvements in their sales process and efficiency after implementing Playbooks, resulting in a spike in key performance indicators and increased pipeline opportunities.
  • Comprehensive Contact Management: Playbooks helps users establish a comprehensive contact cadence when engaging new prospects, ensuring that accounts are not lost and tasks are not forgotten.
  • Improved Organization: It keeps everyone on track, more organized, and helps manage cadence effectively. Users appreciate that it simplifies the contact process and helps manage prospective customers efficiently.
  • Enhanced Record-Keeping: Playbooks logs calls, emails, and activities with prospects, allowing users to keep track of their outreach efforts and maintain a clear view of activities within Salesforce.com.
  • Productivity Boost: The software is highly regarded for its ability to increase productivity, save time, and provide relevant information about customers. It helps users focus on sales rather than administrative tasks.
  • Targeted Outreach: Playbooks is being tested as a targeted outreach marketing solution for multi-touch emails and calls to reach both new and existing opportunities.
  • Streamlined Prospecting: Users leverage Playbooks to automate tasks in calls and email marketing, saving time and integrating with Salesforce for seamless data entry. The dialing platform within Playbooks allows users to start activities directly from Salesforce and receive notifications of client activity.

In conclusion, Playbooks by InsideSales.com is a powerful tool that revolutionizes sales processes by addressing issues of communication gaps, improving efficiency, enhancing organization, increasing productivity, providing valuable insights, and streamlining prospecting efforts. Users across various industries have experienced significant improvements in their sales outcomes after implementing Playbooks. The software integrates seamlessly with other tools such as CRM systems and email platforms to provide a comprehensive solution for managing prospecting activities effectively.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(51-75 of 127)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
March 01, 2019

Efficiency is key!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it to organize and create the most efficient application of our day and time spent trying to contact a decision maker.
  • Schedules your day in the most efficient way possible
  • Organizes your day by time zones
  • Pulls up the account you need to be reaching out to
  • You cannot send an email as you're waiting for the phone to connect which is wasted time.
When you start your day already having everything laid out for your time management is extremely convenient.
March 01, 2019

Groupon Review

Sean McCormick | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It has been used by Groupon with my team first. We have implemented it help us with our 10 day play. Playbooks makes it a lot easier to make the play go smoothly. It allows for a lot more organization and in return it makes the whole play go over smoothly compared to before.
  • Great organization
  • Timely reminders
  • Smooth transitioning
  • Hard to make multiple calls with same account
  • Some accounts get re-sent over and go through the play twice
  • Some accounts don't automatically go into Playbooks
It is well suited for the whole play in general. Being able to go through my day and do all of step 1 or all of step 3 and doing them together makes it easier. Being able to do all my calls for one step or all my emails makes my day go a lot smoother.
Alie Kiral | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Groupon is using this program for inbound sales to organize and create a working flow through new/prospecting leads.
  • Gives a salesperson the ability to plan their day thoughtfully based on hotness, location, and previous activity on leads.
  • Allows for email templates and automated voicemails to make reaching out easier and faster to increase volume of daily touches.
  • Very user friendly - learn and master within about a week.
  • Difficult to get to tasks that are not "due" yet - extra clicks required when your day is moving more quickly through tasks than what is assigned by the program.
  • Better/less clunky email functionality desired.
It is a great tool for a salesperson for whom volume of touches is key.
Paige Borrelli | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Predictive Playbooks is currently being rolled out to our sales org team by team. Our department is the first to fully implement it, and we have already seen improvements! It takes the guesswork out of our team's cadence, and makes sure that as managers we know that our reps have the tools to quickly and efficiently get in contact with a lead and sell.
  • The call recordings are so easy to access and use and view, and as a manager this helps immensely in coaching our reps and ensuring that they are following protocols.
  • The pre-recorded voicemails help my reps not get burnt out when very few of their contacts are answering the phone. I feel that it takes a lot of the repetitive nature out of that aspect.
  • Gamifying the cadence process in getting in contact with a lead makes it so that our reps feel accomplished even if they just have made a "play". It creates little wins throughout the day, and bite sized goals.
  • I feel that at this point, it isn't extremely useful for after getting in contact, which needs a bit more structure in our sales org as well. I would love to see more intuitive plays made for follow ups on contacted businesses.
  • I would like more data and reporting on my end as a manager that is easy to view.
  • There are still some kinks to be worked out, but I see quick action taken on a lot of the little things and that is good to see.
In a sales org with high volume, Playbooks is extremely well suited. It ensures that reps are following a suggested cadence, and that there is less guesswork for them. It prevents things from falling through the cracks in a world where there are MANY cracks. I feel it would be less appropriate in a situation where reps were receiving a high volume of inbound situations and requests, especially in the case of an account management role.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Predictive Playbooks is being used in a decent sized department but will end up being implemented company-wide. Playbooks addresses the need for representatives to organize their day so they can effectively reach more merchants
  • Easy to send and keep track of email
  • Very easy to learn and use
  • Assists reps to organize and arrange appointments for businesses all around the United States and Canada
  • Provide a feature to review existing accounts
  • Reduce the time needed to disposition a call
  • Implement a feature that automatically attaches file attachments
Playbook is efficient for seasoned vets looking to increase the amount of sales or for a department with a high turnoverr rate needing a systematic approach to quickly train new staff
Britni Berg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently, the sales reps that I manage are using Predictive Playbooks for their daily prospecting. It is helping to address issues associated with heightened admin work - sales reps are now able to focus on their prospects and using their time efficiently, rather than spending too much time attempting to organize their process with each account.
  • Organization with tasks - Playbooks tells reps what step they are on with each account
  • Keeping reps focused & accountable - now, they know exactly what is expected of them for that day
  • Time efficiency - realizing what accounts to continue working, and what accounts to stop working
  • The ability to filter specific plays or pieces of information so that it's more user-friendly for the overall organization. Essentially, more room to customize the organization of accounts and how you're working them.
  • The initial onboarding process of accounts results in high levels of tasks - the ability to break these down in an easier way to help with time management would be helpful.
Playbooks is extremely helpful when it comes to knowing where you are with each account - it eliminates the extra "thought" behind each prospect as it organizes it for you. When attempting to be a bit more strategic though, beyond simply when to reach out to an account (ex: wanting to organize accounts in a certain way), there's less of a customized ability here, making reps look elsewhere for support on this.
February 27, 2019

Not a fan.

Ayden Schwartz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently we are using inside sales playbooks in inbound sales - I use it daily and honestly the only feature I truly appreciate is the voicemail option. Having the ability to have prerecorded voicemails was a brilliant idea, outside of that - the application needs a lot of work. It has great potential but I feel it still has many struggles. Constantly freezes, constantly crashes, truly at this point it is slowing me down and making me less productive at work.
  • Recorded Voice Mail Option
  • No need for multiple tabs open
  • Lags / freezes
  • Does not allow you to see the decision maker's name just the name of the business
  • Does not segment correctly
  • Does not put hot leads first
  • Messy application
It's a great concept, and will eventually work well but I believe it was rolled out too soon, still errors and now department wide it's certainly slowing me down in my day to day.
Max Morris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Being used in department for use in tracking daily call cadence.
  • Helps organize multiple accounts via timezones, and organizes them to make call flow more organic.
  • Smooth integration with other salesforce tools and templates.
  • Handy new tools, like prerecorded voicemails.
  • Email templates are still a bit buggy to edit in the app.
  • Actions after a play is sucessful are sometimes a bit too quick: if a follow-up call is needed a bit too many steps are needed to add back into scheduled calls- though that might be something built in that I have not used yet.
  • Sometimes keeping track of upcoming actions is a bit tricky to keep track of, but again it could be something I still have not gotten the handle on yet.
Good for working towards getting in contact with a merchant, but sometimes seems a bit complicated to use after a play is successful, so I return back to using some normal SF tools. Also the extension being open in every tab can be a little frustrating, as you need to reload the extension in one tab to see an update made in another.
February 25, 2019

Playbooks = Game Changer

Nickolas Pulido | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's being rolled out to the Sales department. The business problems it addresses are the ability to save time researching who you need to call or email. Playbooks does it all for you. It plans out my prospecting list and I can personally follow up with leads that are moving forward in the sales process. It's an efficiency tool.
  • Ability to send pre-recorded voicemails.
  • Ability to send emails at a high rate and have the track-ability of effectiveness.
  • Really easy, intuitive user experience. It only took a day or two to get used to.
  • In the optional notes section a drop down with commonly used notes would be helpful.
  • It's bugged out a few times where I've had to restart it.
  • Can't send mass personalized emails at the moment.
Well suited for sales team looking to be more efficient/effective. In my opinion, it is less appropriate for a small team. With large teams, it ensures everyone is hitting their activity metrics.
February 25, 2019

My review on Playbooks

Tara Honda | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Playbooks has just recently been implemented in our inbound department at Groupon. It is a great tool for big call blocks and for using to leave voicemails. In addition, it is a great tool to stay on task and not having to think about time zones and just keep calling people. In our department, higher dials mean higher sales, and Playbooks really helps with higher dials for sure.
  • Leaving voicemails and moving on to the next task
  • Giving us the most important accounts to hit first
  • Time zone knowledge
  • Being able to send emails while waiting for merchant to pick up or for leaving VM
  • Being able to add own personal templates to use within playbooks
Useful for planning day-to-day, not really helpful once DM is connected. Then it is very back and forth between three different things like Google, Salesforce and Playbooks. But in the end, it is still helpful.
Mary Shoemaker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is being used in sales, all across the department. It has helped address the problems of organizing our day and how many accounts we touch and how many times we touch that account before reaching a DM or letting the account go. This has also helped the accounts not get contacted as much and has made for a more seamless transition when you receive an account that has been contacted recently
  • Organizes my day by how many things I need to accomplish that day
  • Tells me who I need to contact and what day it is of me reaching out
  • You are able to integrate your cadence system into the tool to match how many times you would like to reach out and when
  • It is hard to organize the actual information in the tool for my specific needs/role
  • I like to be able to have my tasks laid out in front of me and have the ability to edit details within the account
  • Playbooks takes time to upload new information to the account so it does interrupt a flow of work sometimes but nothing big
Playbooks helps you to organize where you are with an account but not how you want to contact the account, meaning it does not give me the ability to organize my accounts by specific criteria that I am otherwise used to. It is very helpful to see what you need to do for the day but not how to go about it.
February 25, 2019

Easy to use and efficient

Laura Nicolescu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Playbooks is being used by Groupon. It is currently being implemented and spread across the sales floor. It has helped organized our days more strategically and also allow us to send emails that we've been meaning to get back to. Using Playbooks helps use our time more wisely rather than waste time on accounts that don't matter or aren't getting anywhere.
  • Organizes your day better
  • Makes it easier to stay in contact with people
  • Reduces time looking for working numbers, sites, and inactive accounts
  • The amount of tasks you have to start with is very high and a little overwhelming
  • Keeping up with email could be difficult at times when you're trying to make all your calls and follow up with certain people
  • Sometimes emails taken from websites come up as non-working
Playbooks is best used for when you have a lot of tasks to do throughout the day such as making several calls and sending consistent, mass emails every hour rather than trying to play catch up later on in the day. It is less appropriate for writing specific emails to different types of verticals.
February 25, 2019

Organization at its best!

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently, the majority of the sales teams here are using this tool. It solves the problems of not having an organized call cadence as well as access to prospecting information all in one tool. It also gives a layout of work that is easy to track and follow. Important information needed for the sale is right there as well as what step you are on.
  • Organization of prospecting accounts.
  • Necessary information including time zone, contact information and Salesforce account all on one panel.
  • Plays that lead to getting through to those prospecting accounts.
  • Would like to see prospecting account's web presence information.
  • Likelihood of answering specific phone numbers or emails.
  • Ability to see what accounts were just added that day.
  • Maybe a feature that allows the tool to be its own pop-up window rather than the side of the Salesforce screen.
Suited very well for those seeking an electronic way to organize your work day and accounts. The ability to come in and have your work outlined in a productive way kills the need for extra admin work to get prepared. It’s less suited if you're trying to schedule accounts that are past the prospecting stage into your workday.
Kane Dale | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our business development team is using Playbooks for specific campaigns. We have a set cadence, talk tracks and email templates set up to make out work flow quick and easy. It allows up to edit or adjust the content in the play if need be.

I think it help us stay on track and makes sure were are following up on our last touch in a timely manner.
  • Easy to set up
  • Speeds up workflow
  • Being able to move back and forth from different plays
  • To work contacts that are not in Playbooks and send emails you might have to log out
  • Need more options when dispositioning calls
  • sometimes it won't send the email right away and you have to click a drop down and specifically hit a tab that sends the email
Well suited for specific campaigns that you are working that need a cadence and pre-written email drip. I think it is suited for other leads we get from website traffic or trailers.
Heath Cockburn | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used in our Inside Sales and Business Development departments. Some differences in the implementation of the two but mostly the same. Sales uses this to record activities, make calls, send emails, and pipeline management. It integrates with our CRM which makes us more efficient at our day to day tasks. We have only been using for less than month but it has mostly addressed efficiency problems as I mentioned before.
  • Activity and email tracking. When sending an email or making a call it will automatically log the activities in the CRM.
  • Pipeline Management - it allows you to schedule out calls and emails "plays" so that you can stay on top of communication with your accounts.
  • Ease of use
  • I wish that you could import accounts like you can contacts.
  • I wish that you could track incoming emails the same as you do sent emails.
It is well suited for sales especially when you are held accountable for activity tracking. It also allows you to keep a log file on all of the contacts that you are working within your accounts. It makes you more organized for sure.
November 23, 2018

ISDC Playbooks Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is currently used by our inside sales teams. It helps us all with the organization of reaching out to customers about specific call campaigns as well as upcoming events we would like to invite them to. In the past we would struggle with keeping record of who we reached out to and what we discussed and this helps us stay organized and saves time.
  • One strength of Playbooks is it keeps me organized.
  • Another strength is it keeps me on pace to reach out to specific customers for different events in different geographies.
  • Another strength is the tool allows you to send marketing material and then you have a record of what you have sent them.
  • There does seem to be a lot of steps involved for each play when it would be nice to have fewer steps to send out an invite to an upcoming webinar.
  • It would also be great to have more VOD's that we could watch on our own time to learn more about the tool.
  • It would also be great to have the ability to see exactly when they open an email and forward it on.
It's well suited when I have an upcoming event in my territory and I need to invite hundreds of people but I don't typically have time to keep track of those people so the Playbooks feature is very helpful for that. Hopefully the tool will expand and have more features in the near future.
November 23, 2018

A Saleman's Dream

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
InsideSales.com is being used by my company as a way to create sales plays and touchpoints along the customer buying journey. It allows for the user to contact prospects in a number of different ways.
  • Allows for me to create sales plays that can either be specific for an industry or company, but also generic for anyone.
  • Has the ability to let me know whether the phone number or email I am contacting is used often and lets me know when someone has opened an email or clicked on a link.
  • Has a Neural Send Feature which allows users to see what the best time of the day is to contact someone.
  • Functionality in the UK could be improved, the Neural Send feature is good but does not work properly in the UK.
  • Better functionality and fluidity with SFDC, sometimes it does not enroll users into a playbook properly.
  • Sometimes the dashboard does not load up my automated tasks properly and then makes me find each automated task manually.
It is well suited for anyone in an SDR or BDR role. As it allows for prospects to be identified and targetted properly. However it is not good in the scenario of when you are an account manager, as that is much more personal selling.
November 20, 2018

Game changer

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Playbooks is being used by the Inside Sales team who follows up on marketing qualified leads as well as customers who request assistance through our technical team. By using Playbooks, we are able to generate plays based on the type of lead, and keep track of leads by utilizing the task feature.
  • Keeps track of leads by using Tasks.
  • Neural analytics helps determine the best time to reach out to the customer.
  • Automated emails helps keep things moving, even while you're away.
  • Sometimes the automated email process stops or does not schedule the email to be sent.
  • If you have too many contacts, it can lag a bit.
  • Clicking on a task will take you straight to the lead in your CRM rather than waiting for you to prompt it to.
Playbooks is well suited for companies that generate multiple leads at a time and need to track them. This helps stay on top of communication with the customer and identifies which leads are at the end of their life cycle to be closed out. There is the option to create custom plays based on the type of lead you're working with.
November 20, 2018

InsidesSales is worth it!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used across the whole organisation. It helps me manage my day to day duties. Sending pre-written emails can save time every day to allow me to spend more time calling.
  • Time Management
  • High Activity
  • Specific Targeting
  • The NeuralSend for the UK is very inaccurate and always chooses to send emails from 9 pm- 1 am. This is about 99% of times
  • I have tried NeuralSend.
  • If a play has been started, and the email is incorrect and if I update the information in InsideSales, it will still send to the previous email further on in the playbook which will make me have to re-add them in.
When I am targeting mass audiences or doing a specific campaign it is really helpful. Not as appropriate when I want to send targeted/personalised emails to 1-5 people.
Gareth Simms | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For the London office and the sales arm, InsideSales.com is used by our organisation to enable our team of prospectors. InsideSales improves productivity and increases the likelihood of engaging with a prospect which generates improved sales results. I believe the intention is, following the acquisition of StyleLabs, for Sitecore to set up an InsideSales team solely on the purpose of selling that, in a traditional and transnational B2B sense, whereby InsideSales will become the primary tool to drive business.
  • Automation
  • Ease of use/simplified UI/straightforward functionality
  • Tracking engagement
  • Updates need to be better signposted/integrated
  • Salesforce integration not always the smoothest
  • Maybe add option of differently aesthetic themes
  • Email signatures are a nightmare to embed
Suited to high functioning sales teams who need to increase their outreach to drive business. Not so suited to account managers who might balk at the idea of automating messages to important clients. Its usage massively enables sales people to get their messaging out there as quickly and as diversely as possible, but is less important for targeted, personalised messages without going against its main USP.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's being used by my department, the BDR organization. It's being used to address the difficulties that exist within an organization surrounding outreach and staying in touch with prospects. It's very difficult to stay up to date with each and every person you're reaching out to at all times, and Playbooks helps add some clarity in the noise.
  • Plays. Allowing you to set up and manage specific plays that are tailored to users, geographies, companies, etc
  • Ease of use: After learning how to get it set up, it's very easy to use and learn
  • Technology. The add-on is packed with technology and is easily added onto your CRM stack
  • Timing: Sometimes it is very slow
  • Install/re-install: Occasionally you need to uninstall and reinstall because the program encounters an error it cannot recover from (Usually related to not being able to disposition a call)
  • Tags: I wish tags would be associated with the plays in playbooks for other people besides management. It would be helpful to be able to search for plays by the tags associated
It is a good program for organizations that have long sales cycles and/or need to keep people in the loop about the company's progress, new releases, etc. It's also good for people who are targeting many different people at the same company. It would be less useful for an organization that is more focused on transnational or "one-time" sales.
November 01, 2018

Playbooks is great

Rob Kennedy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Playbooks removes so many steps in my process. What would take 10 minutes now takes less than 1. Definitely can't imagine working without this tool. While Playbooks is a game-changer, there are some imperfections (all minor). Sometimes automatic emails take awhile to send. Time management! I want to spend my time having conversations with people, not entering data and searching for contacts. Playbooks saved the day.
  • Helps with time management
  • Helps with organization of prospect/customer data
  • The insights section links right to the company's linkedin page
  • Some auto emails do not send right away
  • Sometimes the analytics about who clicks links within emails is off
Anytime you need to make calls or send emails AND log them in CRM...Playbooks is useful.
Tim Snedden | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Playbooks is primarily used across Infor's business development department. The software allows us to keep a close eye on our prospecting cadence and manage prospect touchpoints. Dialing in is made into a single click process, as is importing prospect data from CRM. Prospecting cadence can be easily adjusted with market trends, helping to keep our processes agile. Altogether, these features of Playbooks help with two key business problems: prospect management and business development productivity.
  • Managing a cadence. Playbooks clearly delineates a designed cadence with symbols and guides. Templates can be applied across the cadence (more on this later).
  • Tracking team scores. Cold calling is gamified with Playbooks to keep team members competitive. For instance, making a call is worth one point, while marking a play as successful will net a user 5 points.
  • Creating templates. Email templates are easy to create, disseminate to your team, label, and apply at your chosen cadence stage. Mail merge fields allow for very specific templates that will appeal to your leads. Playbooks integrates seamlessly with Outlook.
  • More text formatting options in email templates, please. I like to get creative with strikethroughs, fonts, and so on. Currently, options are limited but very usable.
  • Iron out the bugs. Occasionally Playbooks will bug out and, for instance, see you typing inexorably backward.
  • When making an ad-hoc call the lead data portion of the screen is locked out, making it difficult to refer to notes (or select your lead in CRM) when making one of these calls. A UI fix is very welcome here!
Playbooks is best suited for high-call-volume contexts with lots of leads. Specifically, a Business Development environment where leads are managed en masse and progress through a designed cadence. It is in this way I use Playbooks, and it works a charm.

Playbooks would be less suited to a mass marketing context where one-to-many communication is the name of the game.

In conclusion, if you have many leads - that require lots of calls and emails - Playbooks is highly recommended.
Marguerite Halbig | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At this time Inside Sales is for our Acquisition and Account Development Phone Sales department. Some of the problems it is addressing is time management, efficiency & productivity with quantity and quality of calls.
  • How quickly it dials the numbers for you
  • You can see who has opened up your emails and updates on the business with "View Insights"
  • Efficient in sending voice messages, and emails
  • Scheduling calls and pausing plays when out of office
  • I think it may be more effective if I could send the email out first, then when I see the client has opened the email, I can call them as soon as possible as I know they are in the office.
  • It would be nice if my week was pre-loaded for me so each day I have a set of tasks that need to be completed. As of now I have to load the accounts into InsideSales and that can be time consuming
  • The pop up with InsideSales is in front of vital information in Salesforce, and it can be distracting.
I had called a client over 5 times, and was going to give up, but InsideSales had me cued to call one last time. The client picked up the phone and I was able to get a large opportunity from it. I would have never tried calling/emailing that client that many times before InsideSales.
October 16, 2018

Great features; flexible

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
InsideSales.com is used by the entire Inside Sales team at our company. This is for tracking communications and prospecting. I have people enrolled in plays and they do not fall off the radar if they are being catered to on InsideSales Playbooks. Calling and emailing is much easier when they're put into one contact and in a "play".
  • Various features of call and email: automated options (E.g. set to send tomorrow at 4 p.m.), recorded voicemails, etc.
  • Ability to share insights and plays - distribute knowledge or success with another team member.
  • Tracking of responses to the emails sent.
  • Email templates allow for formats to be pasted other than just text.
  • CRM integration is simple and easy.
  • Glitches almost weekly or every other week.
  • "NeuralSend", or smart send which should determine best read time, is sent at odd hours.
  • CRM integration disconnects randomly once every few weeks.
The tool is great for an Inside Sales team, prospecting engagements, campaigns, and follow-ups. Perhaps not the best for random sales communication especially mixed with an on-site visit, due to the inconsistency and lack of a prospecting/uniform set of communication need.
Return to navigation